Last week saw another barrage of new game releases in Japan. The best-selling was Sony’s Gran Turismo 6, which opened at 204,784 copies.

At #2 was the game that brought the Wii back from the grave—Dragon Quest X: The Slumbering Hero and Sworn Guiding Ally. This is an expansion to Dragon Quest X and was also released for Wii U. The Wii U version sold 70,648 copies.

Meanwhile, the Nintendo 3DS saw a few releases of its own. Attack on Titan from Spike Chunsoft sold 93,471 copies at launch, which is a decent start, but we aren’t confident sales will be able to hold up consistently over the next few weeks, given that the game doesn’t look quite as polished as it could have, with a little more time and effort invested in it.

Meanwhile, Level 5 released Inazuma Eleven Go Galaxy in two versions—Big Bang and Supernova—both of which sold a combined total of 91,643 copies. And finally, Square Enix released Bravely Default: For the Sequel, an updated version of Bravely Default with new features, which sold 35,617 copies at retail.

Note that 3DS owners that already own the original Bravely Default in Japan have the option of buying For the Sequel at a heavily discounted price off the Nintendo eShop. Existing owners can download the game for a mere 2,900 yen, so one would imagine that a fair few opted to go that route, and weren’t counted among retail buyers. That said, 35,000 copies for what is essentially the same game with a few upgrades is a rather impressive feat in itself.

That was the first thing I looked for in last week and this week’s sale, and while I expected it to bomb it’s still a shame. I’ve playing it the past few days and it’s pretty good

Death Saved

Ahh but is it anything new?

Its the same formula with a boring twist thats aimed at introducing a younger audiance to MH, they would have probably gotten more sales on the Vita or -shudder- mobile as there is less competition there.

SilentMC

I know it looks like a hunting game, but it plays nothing like one. So I don’t think that comparison really applies.

It plays more like a boss rush character action game (which is nothing new) but much like Treasure’s other games, they’re nothing new but feel/play great.

I will admit though the concept of the series itself is somewhat boring and it doesn’t help the anime is extremely bad

MrSirFeatherFang

Nice! I can always count on Treasure to make good games :D
Too bad it bombed, I’m really just interested in the game. Not sure if I’m willing to buy all those collectables. Might check the anime sometime.

OlimacFTW

This is what I think: Maybe it is a retaliation by the players against Capcom’s decision to invest the money received thanks to the sales for Monster Hunter 4 to a mobile division.

Yeah, Gaist Crusher is a complete bomb. This is their second attempt to launch another kids’ franchise (the first one being EX Troopers) and it’s gone south as well. I’m starting to think that kids’ market is getting oversaturated. Unless you’ve got something really unique, you’re better off staying away, because the competition is brutal.

JonathanisPrimus

EX Troopers was aimed at teens. It was a spinoff of Lost Planet after all.

Gaist Crusher was aimed at the LBX/Inazuma Eleven/Pokemon crowd as the manga is serialized in the pre-teen focused Saikyo JUMP. It’s a bigger bomb than EX Troopers is by a huge mile given the fact that it has a currently airing TV anime, and a toyline that’s heavily connected to the game no one’s buying.

John Diamond

how badly did it bomb?

British_Otaku

How badly did E.X. Troopers bomb? Well it charted with both the 3DS (17,402) and PS3 (8,717 – less than Gaist maybe, but two platforms is a thing with portables being more popular) versions, it definitely was pushed but not nearly as much as Gaist Crusher (anime, Oda + Toriyama Gaists, toys, manga) which even had two tie ins to recent/current Capcom games.

John Diamond

gaist crusher, i mean

British_Otaku

I sorta answered that as well.
It had an anime out for months in advance of the game releasing, it got a demo out over a month ago, it had a manga serialised, it had monsters designed by One Piece’s Oda and Dragon Ball + Dragon Quest’s Toriyama, it had monsters inspired by Capcom’s Monster Hunter and Sengoku Basara, it got frequent trailers and such updating us on the monsters featured and it had toys which you used to access new abillities and more powers in a Skylanders fashion avaliable I believe even before the game released and compatible with the demo (I need to check that one).

Being below 11K with all of that is pretty unacceptable, so this one might disappear quicker than Gyrozetter which was also rather good I hear.

To be fair, E.X. Troopers was really shoehorned into a franchise it didn’t really need to be a part of, and that likely brought up more than one problems when presenting it to the audience: Like brand confusion and tonal shift (to put it very lightly). Also, going with a Shonen story formula so predictably stock probably didn’t help add uniqueness to the game.

Link

Yep, first week sales are less than 7.5k. Sucks for Capcom cause the game actually looked pretty interesting.

SilentMC

Where did you see these numbers?

Link

NeoGaf Media Create. It didn’t even chart in the top 30 on Famitsu which ended w/ God Eater 2 at 7.6k. So the assumption was that GC had to sell < 7.6k if it didnt even chart.

JonathanisPrimus

You said “are at about 7.5k” when the numbers you presented don’t represent that. It sold less than 7600 copies, so it could have done even worse.

Link

Yeah thats my bad, I was just scanning through GAF earlier and saw the 7.5k number and Gaist Crusher in the same post and rolled w/ it. It wasn’t till I went back and actually read it that it said it would be less than that due to the facts given.. Was just to lazy to edit my original post.

chibidw

Just remember, this is the type of thing Capcom no longer works on Mega Man in favor of. Schadenfreude!

TrueDefault

It’s such a shame, I loved Tearaway.

malek86

Jesus, that picture. The ages-old 3DMark 2000 test had much better graphics than that. Especially the houses.

We’re into December now, but it doesn’t look like MH4 sales are increasing, unlike Pokemon. I wonder if they reached a point where everyone who wanted the game has it already, while new 3DS owners are much more likely to buy Pokemon.

Death Saved

These kinds of games are Japan’s equivalent to movie spin offs in the west plus its on the 3DS, so dont expect them to put much effort into it.

Personally im more interested in the fan made game, the movement in that seems to be more fluid.

XypherCode

Well at least the Wii U is doing well for now. I guess 3D World is really a game that the sales grows overtime. Not too surprising that the DQ10 Wii sold more than Wii U considering the install base…and they discontinued the console at that. Pretty good fanbase there. Hmmm MH4 sales are dipping…

Daniel Jeanbaptiste

Wii games are backward compatible so it really doesn’t matter in this case.

XypherCode

Yeah but the BC doesn’t really makes sense because they could’ve just bought the Wii U version in that case. They both have the same price tag I believe. And considering more people has Wiis than Wii Us then it’s pretty obvious.

Daniel Jeanbaptiste

maybe they wanted spend less

XypherCode

Like I said the price is the same for both versions.

Will Jay

Oh my god, that drop in Inazuma Eleven sales compared to Chrono Stone and the original Go. Have to wonder just what happened. Might just be the extremely overcrowded release week, though.

I’m not surprised that Gaist Crusher totally flopped. Like, at all.

Shippoyasha

I do agree Inazuma should have shown stronger, it is still pretty solid for the series. Maybe Level 5 shouldn’t have released it in the midst of the holiday crunch. It may have gotten all the attention to itself during late spring through summer.

Roberto

Happy to see GT on the list

Herok♞

Wow the Wiiu did a killing this week, I wonder if they can keep good numbers at the rest of the year

Ni ~UNREAL BLACK THINGS~

Even L5 is troubled with the kids market lately Gaist Crusher bombing is not so surprising. I’m more interested in the YGO numbers. Even after 2 years of no new game it achieved only 26k copies? lol

Zizal

I am hoping japanese publishers will make more games for teens like Bravely Default and less for children like Gaist Crusher.

Namuro

But the children group is a major target consumer in Japan. Media designed purely for children still sells very well, if done correctly, like Pokemon (which even pulled in teens and adults, across both genders). Just because one game has done poorly, doesn’t mean they should steer away; they should strive to do better!

In my opinion, it’s very vital that game developers continue to invest more in games for children. People might say that you should just let the kids play games for teens or adults, but most of the time, those games are not appropriate, and maybe too difficult. I’ve seen quite a lot children that got frustrated from playing games that are meant for older gamers, and quit altogether. Heck, I’ve seen one kid who’s already 7 years old, but couldn’t even play Mario Bros. on the 3DS properly. Before long, he quit and turned to something simpler… smartphone games.

If the developers stop making an effort in producing games for children, they will lose many more potential customers in the future. Nowadays, most kids’ main entry into gaming is through the smartphones. The games are really cheap, or even free, and the parents don’t even have to buy a dedicated console, as they can just lend their smartphones to the kids. Chances are, if the kids grow up with smartphone games, they’ll stick to these games well into adulthood as well! There’s a junior co-worker at the game company I’m at, that claims to be a hardcore gamer, but knew practically nothing beyond app games. If this trend continues, we might eventually have nothing but smartphone games in the near future…

Actually, the future is not really far off. Everyday, I see more and more people playing games on their smartphones, the same game over and over and over and over… (Candy Crush, Angry Bird, you name it). When I was younger, I used to see a group of teens huddled together near the mall, playing on their Game Boys. At homes, friends would come round to play on the NES, SNES, Genesis, etc. But now, everywhere I look, I only see kids swarming over an iPhone, getting excited over popping balloons on the screen, or tapping arrows to shoot down birds.

Also, I think Bravely Default targets more at the older gamers, who grew up with the good ol’ classic Japanese RPG, and wanting to relive the experience. Only when it becomes well-recognized, I believed that’s where the teens come in, as they seek something that has been tested and approved by the older gamers (Not all teens, of course, but in most cases).

Heisst

…Wii games are still selling?

British_Otaku

If the Wii gets a major game, it will sell.
Pikmin 2 on the Wii charted not too long ago just from the Pikmin 3 effect.

Since, the Wii isn’t really getting many releases, you can’t expect to see even a 100 million jugglenaut chart.

Tonton Ramos

So the Galaxy has Crushed the Gaist too bad… Wow since Zexal is almost close to an end to the road of battling Don Thousand I’m surprised it still got on the weekly sales.

British_Otaku

Galaxy Big Bang/Supernova didn’t do so well itself considering the legacy of games behind it and all of the other media, but going up against your direct competition with Pokemon AND Monster Hunter still selling tens or hundreds of thousands a week is something.

Zexal did decently well, and I’m glad for that. Hopefully Konami will be bringing it over. /hopefully/.

Speaking of Zexal though, the next series got announced. Arc-V is what it’s being called. I guess we’re likely to only get one more Zexal game at this rate, and that’s it, before they move onto the next series.

Ni ~UNREAL BLACK THINGS~

wow.zexal is ending already? now i’ll just wait for the series to end and finally watch it from when i stopped. In the case of the game i thought that it would do better after two years of no YGO game, but is on the same mark of the WC ones so this is a good thing i guess.

I for one don’t know if i’ll even get this game, I still want to support YGO but the only thing that i liked about Zexal was Kanan singing Braving.
Well until Arc-V launches i’ll keep playing and watching CF!Vanguard

Really, the series hits a high point in Zexal II, so I do recommend continuing where you left off in the show.

I imagine most of the problem with the game selling “low”, in a lot of people’s eyes, is that Vanguard is apparently selling better in terms of cards, in Japan. The anime from what I’ve heard is much lower budget, but the cards have been managing to make waves and really hurt the Yu-Gi-Oh game.

On the other hand, Yu-Gi-Oh is one of the best selling TCGs in the west, and Vanguard failed to really make much of an impact– mostly because there are problems with bringing the anime to TV, due to standards concerning what is considered to be a “commercial” or a “show”. I imagine Duel Carnival will probably sell decently if Konami makes the localization.

anthony apduhan

(T-T) I’m gonna miss Zexal and Yuma he’s one of the characters who made me smile. Can’t wait for Arc-V though… But still (T-T)

Aha, nice to see someone who’s enjoyed Zexal, at least! I’m sure there’s gonna be a ton of people who’ll be sad to see Zexal go, though– it’s come a seriously long way since it got revealed, and it’s story has been one of the most consistent ones through the franchise. Hoping that Arc-V continues that trend of writing consistency.

Solomon_Kano

Gaist Crusher… DAMN.

Real shame.

SerendipityX

Not as as much as a shame as Vita TV. So long VitaTV we barely knew thee…

Herok♞

to be fair we all know it wasn’t going to do that well in Japan where mobile is kind it will do better in NA/Europe

SerendipityX

Yeah, I don’t think SCEA is going bring over the Vita TV, they barely have a handle on regular Vita.

mirumu

I think it’ll happen, but it may not be in the same form. Also the streaming functionality Sony wants to push isn’t really there yet. I have a Vita TV, and right now it’s just a non-portable Vita with a bigger screen. I like it though.

To be honest I don’t think SCEA cares to much for Vita or anything Vita related. We may get and it probably do decently better in the West. But unless they start bringing the games Vita will still be a burning cesspool of lost potential.

mirumu

I think it depends a bit what you’re interested in. I have more Vita games than 3DS games, although it’s close. I think Japan is doing okay for Vita releases, but we could certainly use some more elsewhere in the world.

SerendipityX

I wonder what their gonna do about the compatibility though. I heard that was an issue.

mirumu

Games are being patched. Already happened for Senran Kagura Shinobi Vs.

I’ve yet to run into a compatibility problem myself, but due to it being restricted to the Japanese PSN right now I can’t try any games I have on my US PSN account.

Herok♞

Trust me they will, it is a more appealing device to the people here in the western world who like having devices for their tvs and can care less about mobile, heck some people will buy one just to play golden if the price it well enough

mirumu

I could see that happening too. Golden does look pretty great on the Vita TV. The visuals look quite a lot better through the Vita TV’s HDMI port than the PS2 version ever did.

Guest

And unless the gameplay is golden, Hero Bank is going to be the next!

British_Otaku

Given that I hear Gaist Crusher AND Gyrozetter were really good, quality isn’t the issue nearly as much as fatigue or saturation with games aiming for this market.

If Hero Bank sells it will be due to incredible marketing (even better than having crossovers with major artists and words or an anime lined up) or hitting as far away from Pokemon and Monster Hunter as possible on top of word of mouth, not quality.

Juan Manuel M. Suárez

For not having a single game released that week, PSV selling 25k is pretty good~.

Slayven19

Yeah I don’t know what caused that to happen, even the wiiU went up for some strange reason.

WiiU had DQ and Mario sales also increased.
Plus, unless it is a special case, DQX Wii should be playable on WiiU as well. So that may be connected.

Juan Manuel M. Suárez

Actually, it’s not a change; the PSV has been averaging 20k+ weekly for a while now. Maybe the system finally found a solid ground in Japan~.

ReidHershel

Called it on Gaist Crusher, and let me add, I am genuinely curious as to what Capcom is going to about Gaist Crusher since they wanted to make it into a full fledged franchise.

InfectedAI

I wonder if they’ve started production on the anime or anything else yet. This might kill their chances of localization. Might encourage them to localize MH4 faster for some badly needed revenue though.

Guest

Gaist Crusher anime? It’s already on episode 10 :P

Maybe Capcom will continue focusing on that mobile division, as they recently invested 40 million Monster Hunter 4 profit on it.

InfectedAI

Damn, 40 million? That’s a huge investment. I’d rather see that going elsewhere. Time will tell if that pays off for them.

Guest

Weak opening numbers for Inazuma, nevertheless we’re on December thus anything can happen with sales through the month, but it’s definitely a series fatigue omen; now look at Wii U.

If only Nintendo could sustain this bump through 2014 by the sheer force of software releases, but I think the only game scheduled so far is Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze.

I wonder why Inazuma Eleven Go and Yugioh Zexal both anime and game wise are like peanut butter and jelly to the kids. Even I like both shows and I’m a teen and they both make my heart filled with joy. Dammit both protagonists are hypnotizing me!

SerendipityX

God Eater 2 didn’t seem to do anything significant for the Vita. I expected it to do better than what I’m seeing right now.

JonathanisPrimus

The probably was that it wasn’t an exclusive, and it’s targeting the same audience that may have bought a Vita to play Soul Sacrifice, Toukiden, and Ragnarok Odyssey.

nihongogamer

Me too, I had hoped that God Eater 2 would boost the sales for Vita more than it has done. But in fairness sales have stabilized around the 20,000 mark since the series 2000 model was released so that’s positive!

ronin4life

But have sales stabilized at around 20,000, or have they “stabilized” the same way they did this past March?
We may not know that until mid January.

I’m actually surprised by the extremely poor sales of Gaist Crusher.
I played the demo, and while it has a lot of problems, specially the very low difficulty and non-challenging gameplay, even for little kids, it still had production values deserving of much higher sales.
Even the anime has slightly higher production values than the average toy-selling kids anime.
Not to mention all the tie-ins and collaborations.
Are you sure it isn’t a mistake?

Tearaway didn’t make it on to the chart. That’s a shame because it’s such a good game, though I’m not really surprised. That Noppo-san video advertising they did here in Japan did nothing to promote the game.